41 Comments
I thought the diminutive of Иван was Вера. Read that yesterday on another lesson's comments.
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Вера is a female name (it doesn't have a diminutive form), Иван/Ваня is a male name. Most Russian names are either strictly male or strictly female
Shouldn't Ivan be correct too? Ваня and Иван are the same thing, aren't they?
Well, William and Billy may also be the same name, but you don't interchange then randomly.
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My guess is that, even though Ваня is the friendly informal form of Иван, they are not universally interchangeable. Using Ваня in a formal context would be unacceptable for example. So if the sentences uses the informal nickname Ваня, it is better to keep it so in the translation.
Vania is a common female name in Portuguese, while Ivan is a common male name. Are both male names in Russian?
Firstly, that's cool that Vanya is also in Portuguese. Second, no, both aren't male names. Vanya is female, and Ivan is a common male, exactly like in Portuguese.
Edit: Sorry!! I just looked up and saw that Vanya is just a different word for Ivan. Vanya is a kind of nickname for Ivan, I think. Please correct me, please! You use it when you know someone well enough to use "ты".
That's cool diogogomez! In bulgaria Vanya is also a girls name. Funny how in russian it's a boys xD
I don't get it. Why would I call Ivan,Vanya. In hindi we generally have feminine equal of masculine. Like,my name ADITYA has feminine equal ADITI. But I cannot think of any such thing over here.
I just looked up and saw that Vanya is just a different word for Ivan. Vanya is a kind of nickname for Ivan, I think. You use it when you know someone well enough to use "ты".
So if I every meet someone whose name is Ivan,would it be accepted for me to address him Vanya.
Only if you were on friendly enough terms where he started to address you as such, as well. I would not automatically start calling every Ivan I met Vanya.
Ehh. Kind of. If you talked with him for a while, or someone you knew well introduced you to him and you talked, you could use it. It's informal, used like a nickname.
As accepted as it would be if having met someone called Charles, you called him Charlie.
Привет меня зовут Иван, но для друзей Ваня. Hello, my name is Ivan, but for friends, I am Vanya
I'd recommend reading the Wikipedia page about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diminutives_by_language#Russian
Long story short, diminutives are often used to denote the smallness of something (книга - book; книжка - little book) or to demonstrate endearment or intimacy with someone (like calling your friend Ваня instead of Иван).
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In English, when "I" is by itself, it is always capitalized. Я when it's by itself in the middle of the sentence doesn't seem to be capitalized, so it seems to be a particularly English rule of grammar. No other pronouns are always capitalized.
Why do we put a " - " between the subject and the object? Is it replacing the verb to be in the present???
Yes, and we put a dash ("—", тире) in other cases. Russians often confuse these difficult rules too. After personal pronoun we don't put a dash usually. Compare: "Дом — здание." (A house is a building.), "Он ребёнок." (He is a child.). We don't use a dash before negation: "Дом не дерево." (A house is not a tree.)
Do not confuse a dash ("—", тире) with a hyphen ("-", дефис) which connect words parts. It is possible to use short sign in both cases, but a dash must be between spaces.
This is Vanya, is right answer too. The translation in English is confusing sometimes
"This is Vanya" = Это Ваня, but here it is literally "I (am) Vanya". It can't be "This is Vanya".
thanks, may be I am confused with the way that Russian grammar works, the sentences have a different structure from my language or English. I wish duolingo would provide some grammar rules too as I am going through lessons but at times I do not understand why it is used a certain form of a word or why they do not accept privet for hello at some cases, but sdrasvujte. It does not explain which is formal or non formal as in English is simple: Hello. Anyway, still I have learned quite a lot in just a month.
I don't understand when I capitalize proper nouns in Russian. Duo does it at random seemingly
If it's a person's name or initials, it will always be capitalized.
For names of organizations, agencies, institutions, only the first word will be capitalized (unless it's named after someone, then that person's name will also be capitalized). For instance: МГУ - Московский государственный университет.
If it's a name of a place, the actual name of the place is capitalized but the type of place is not. For instance, in English we would write "Leningrad Street", but in Russian they would write "ул. Ленинградская".
